It’s one of those days.
What They Say:
Sirens awaken the No-Star students for the start of “No-Late Day,” where being tardy will get you expelled from Honnouji Academy. With Senketsu in the wash, Ryuko must fight on her own to get through the Discipline Committee’s traps and arrive on time.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
How could the boys at Trigger possibly follow up an episode as huge in both plot progression and intricate animation as episode 3 of Kill la Kill? Clearly the only option is to have exactly the opposite. However much episode 3 was like Gurren Lagann episode 4 is like Panty & Stocking. There have always been elements of the series that looked more like Little Witch Academia than anything, but at times this one even goes as far as resembling Inferno Cop more. Yep, this one is all crazy all the time, and not for a moment does anything about it offer an apology.
The plot to the episode is entirely inconsequential to most likely any other episode for the rest of the series, with a paper-thin plot loaded with the kinds of comedic elements that you could’ve found in any cartoon from any era in any country, some even for any demographic. This team isn’t about to waste everyone’s valuable time with an empty rehash of preexisting material, though, and true to form takes everything to the extreme, packing in countless tropes and original but largely nonsensical gags into every second, creating a deliberate sensory overload that never gives the brain enough time to rest before slapping it with the next bit of lovingly-crafted randomness to pop up.
In nearly all works by this same core team, there have been notable instances of the artwork and/or animation changing drastically in style, often switching abruptly to a much more simplistic look (even for Panty & Stocking, although obviously it’s also famous for doing this switch to a much more detailed style than its default, particularly in terms of artwork) for comic relief. This episode has no shortage of this, and in fact even remains in the much more simplistic style so much that there’s seldom a frame of the artwork characteristic of the more serious and gripping moments such as in much of the previous episode outside of the opening, ending, preview, and flashbacks to that very episode. Like Panty & Stocking, though, much of this comically simplistic artwork is animated with at least as much care as anything in the series, which complements the almost unbearably fast pace of the episode as much as it needs to. The Inferno Cop comparisons come in when the episode needs to make a bigger impact with its comedic simplicity after the artwork has worn out its novelty a bit, and the animation is reduced to basically moving around objects on screen with little to no precision, as if making a stop-motion movie with paper cutouts.
This episode is almost definitely an attempt to polarize its audience, because chances are you’ll either love it or hate it. If you really love these creators, you’re probably used to this kind of material, especially since no episode of the series has really been without it, but even then an entire episode full of this might be a bit much for people. But for its always risky creativity, commitment to having fun, and deceptively skilled workmanship, I definitely approve.
In Summary:
It’s just fun. Love it or hate it, it’s hard to fault it for that fact. What Kill la Kill does when it wants to have fun is goes all out with a crazy, high-energy onslaught on the senses at every second, and it does so magnificently, keeping the animation exactly as it should be even with the simplest of art.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Toshiba Satellite L655-S5191 PSK2CU-1C301U Notebook PC.
